Ex-chief's retirement package voided

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2007 at 2:00 AM

BREWSTER — At the request of former Police Chief James Ehrhart, the selectmen last week voted to nullify a retirement agreement with him, and pay him a lump sum of $71,748 owed to him in unused sick pay.

ROBIN LORD

BREWSTER — At the request of former Police Chief James Ehrhart, the selectmen last week voted to nullify a retirement agreement with him, and pay him a lump sum of $71,748 owed to him in unused sick pay.

He asked the board to void the agreement, in light of an Oct. 23 article in the Cape Cod Times that outlined the former chief's retirement package, according to Selectman Edward Lewis, the board chairman.

The package gave Ehrhart certain benefits in lieu of pay for unused sick time he had accumulated over his 33-year career, such as the use of the 2005 Ford Explorer he drove as chief, and payment of an annual $5,000 life insurance policy for 15 years.

Ehrhart asked to end the agreement over concerns that the impression that he was getting benefits to which he was not entitled, Lewis said.

"Jim Ehrhart never did anything underhanded. He's always been an up-front person," Lewis said. "If you saw the amount of time he puts into this town (without pay), you would be amazed."

Reached yesterday, Ehrhart said he wanted to set the record straight.

"I wanted to end the controversy and move forward," he said.

Ehrhart, who is one of five selectmen, did not vote on the matter and left the room while the board discussed it. The board voted 3-1 in favor of ending the agreement. Selectman Peter Norton voted no, saying he believed it would set a precedent. Norton said when a contract is signed in good faith, it should be honored.

The terms of Ehrhart's retirement agreement were nullified by the selectmen's Nov. 19 vote. Ehrhart turned in the car and has resigned as emergency management director for the town, for which he was being paid an annual stipend of $10,000, Lewis said. The position will now be covered by Police Chief Richard Koch and Lt. George Bausch.

Ehrhart's retirement agreement was arranged by the 2002 board of selectmen. Greg Lavasseur, a selectman then, discovered that following Ehrhart's retirement the chief would be eligible for $145,000 in unused sick pay.

Concerned that the lump sum would be hard for the town to absorb, the selectmen worked out the benefits package, Lavasseur said last month.

The value of the benefits Ehrhart received when he retired last year, which also included membership at the town golf course and eligibility for continued 75 percent town health insurance coverage, was about $5,000 less than the unused sick pay amount.

While he was chief, he also elected to forgo most of a $132,000 accumulated pay increase to which he was entitled under the Quinn Bill. The bill grants a 20 percent pay increase to police officers with bachelor's or master's degrees, split evenly between the state and the town.

Had Ehrhart accepted the raise, it would have boosted his approximately $89,000 annual retirement pay by about $15,000 a year, Town Administrator Charles Sumner said last month.

The details of how Ehrhart's $71,748 unused sick pay will be paid will be decided during budget discussions in December and January, according to town finance director Lisa Souve.

Robin Lord can be reached at rlord@capecodonline.com.

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